Meta

Flaunting sex appeal is a way of life in Italy. But now there is a rebellion. 60% of the Italian TV audience is made up of women! The Italian media is presenting vulgar images of women with silicone lips, breasts and thighs and call this beauty.

Italian women are now protesting the culture of sexism that is being promoted on Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s three television stations ( for those who didn’t know he runs the media as well!!)

Barely clad sexy women who are known as the “veline” are a special feature of the entertainment empire that has made Berlusconi one of the world’s wealthiest men.

Lorella Zanardo – a Milan businesswoman has dedicated a tremendous amount of time to raise awareness about how Italian television views women’s bodies. Her documentary Il Corpo Delle Donne has received worldwide media coverage with nearly one million views.

When Lorella Zanardo takes her 25 minute video around to schools she asks girls what it is they want to be when they grow up. For girls between the ages 16 to 17 the answer is often to be a “velina”.

In this short video Lorella asks the question to all women ” who are we?”, ” what do we want?” and ” why aren’t all Italian women in the streets protesting against the way they are being represented?”

Why indeed?

If we as women are to empower ourselves, if we want to change the way we are viewed then we have to accept taking some responsibility in making those changes.

Refuse to be part of the industry that promotes a distorted view on what women should look like. This is not to say that we should not work towards looking our absolute best. But there is a vast difference between working on maintaining a healthy body both on the inside and out and subjecting oneself to ridiculous amounts of plastic surgery to live up to an ‘image’ of beauty that has been determined by the media.